


There will be a day

by Hectrex



Category: Apex Legends (Video Games)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:55:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28139547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hectrex/pseuds/Hectrex
Summary: All things come in their time
Comments: 1
Kudos: 12





	There will be a day

The detergent drips into the washing machine, its blue syrup running over the shorts and vest. Once more, the clothes have been stained with more blood than you would think was in his body. With all the Stim, Ajay wonders if he ought to be bleeding green by now.

She pours in an additional stain remover, sets the machine to cold, and starts the regular cycle, leaning against the box as it begins its renewal. Around the corner, up three flights of stairs, past a broom closet, past a waiting room, past a chorus of grumbling I-told-you-so's is a medical ward that practically has Octavio's name carved into it. He's all over it, even when somehow lying still: the operating table is connected to the doorway by bloodlines of accidents past, accompanied by scuff marks from when he was dragged because his legs had broken, all of it surrounded by patched walls that would always become marred by his overexcitement when he was cleared to run again.

And there's a chair that has soaked up broken reservoirs of tears, tears of the same variety that are now rolling down Ajay's blank expression. She's used to being stern and scolding or calm and reassuring during these events, so the facade stays there, just in case she has to be strong for her patient. But you don't care enough to enter this field without absorbing some of the pain, and you don't patch up Octavio time and time again without occasionally realizing something:

There will be a day when he doesn't get back up.

And it doesn't matter how many times it's actually his own fault. It doesn't matter if she does all she can. It doesn't matter if she says she may not be around to fix him up one day, because there will be a day when he can't be fixed. And, deep inside, no matter how many apologies and reasonings and veils of healing she uses to board it up, there will always be a black flame burning, whispering to her that it was her fault.

She's lost patients before. Not everybody gets rescued, and even those who do don't always make it. Cold realities that ice the coffee of a medic's life. But Octavio... _he just can't seem to die._ If it were anyone else, she would say that it was unfair. She spent years trying to bring people out of the grave, people who wanted to make it and stay safe, only to lose pulse and become another sad letter to deliver. But Octavio cheats death on a constant basis, and Ajay is forced to be okay with it. If she wasn't... if it were fair... she'd lose her little Tavi.

This punk kid who burns through his parents' money, quite literally, to set a ring on fire so he can jump through it. This confidant who would gladly take bullets for her, even it if was partially to feel the sting and adrenaline. This unstoppable, annoying, hyperactive brat who will still always care, even if he has trouble saying it outright.

Gone.

So, maybe, just maybe, it's okay if the universe isn't fair. Does that make her a bad medic? Does that kick dirt on the people she couldn't save? No. Because she knows, horrendously and with full force, that one day the universe is going to start playing fair. It's going to collect on every cheated debt. It's going to cut the cord and flatline his oscillating existence.

And she'll have no facade on that day.

She wipes the tears and rushes from the laundry room. She forgot to make sure his hospital gown wasn't too tight. And he'll definitely need some water when he wakes up. And maybe the IV wasn't firmly fastened in place.

And hopefully, just maybe, the debt hasn't been paid yet.


End file.
